IKEA to Launch Smart Plug at US$10: Report

Swedish furniture company IKEA will reportedly release a new smart plug, as early as the coming October at a competitive price, as part of its smart home product offering.

According to Swedish news outlet Teknikveckan, the design will look similar to other smart plugs in the market. However, IKEA will differentiate through pricing. The smart plug will only cost US$10, and a bundle including a plug and a remote will cost US$15.

Like IKEA’s other devices in the Tradfri smart lighting product line, the new smart plug will support major smart home voice platforms: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple HomeKit with Siri. The IKEA smart plug could be the cheapest compared with similar products that also support all major voice control platforms.

Meanwhile, the furniture company’s smart lighting products haven’t always received positive feedback. Some users have said the voice command responses aren’t consistent under everyday usage. Nonetheless, these devices remain to be an affordable option in the smart lighting market.

While focusing on offering furniture, IKEA has also participated actively in the smart home market. Starting with the Qi wireless charging series furniture, the company has introduced smart lighting in various forms of furniture, and has partnered with speaker company Sonos to work on new home speakers.

The speaker being developed with Sonos aims to blend into home decoration rather than being a standalone device. The product is expected to be unveiled in summer 2019. It’s still unknown whether the speaker will have voice assistant built-in. Sonos already creates speakers with Alexa support.

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